First Amendment lawyer David Wasserman died Thursday, Sept. 25 by his own hand. He reportedly suffered from depression for the past 16 years.
The Orlando Sentinel reports:
Wasserman, 52, was a passionate defender of the First Amendment who loved a good fight and reveled in speaking his mind, those who knew him said. He was the Christian Coalition’s nightmare, a guy whose credo was naked bodies are no big deal. And none of the government’s business.
…
A human run-on sentence, he was eager to preach his gospel of First Amendment freedom.
I knew Wasserman personally. I made my entree into First Amendment law when David and I were both representing an adult bookstore in Florida. David sponsored me for admission into the First Amendment Lawyers’ Association. However, it did not take long for me to sense that he was the kind of guy who seemed to always be followed by a cloud of bad luck.
I am a firm believer in the following law of power: “You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster: The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.”
Applying that wisdom, I chose to avoid him. However, we had many common acquaintances and business connections. Accordingly, I watched from the stands as he spiraled downward in a morass of bad decisions. I never enjoyed watching him drop, but I wasn’t ever surprised.
I don’t bring this up to malign his memory. In fact, I’d prefer that all who knew him remember him as a “passionate defender of the First Amendment” — a statement that is 100% true. However, Wasserman is a good cautionary tale for those who think that they want to break into the field of adult entertainment law. This is a field for those who are passionate defenders of the First Amendment — but it is a field where the consequences of judgment errors can magnify and multiply rapidly.
Those in the First Amendment bar are some of the most eccentric and unique personalities in the legal profession. David was a morass of imperfections (as we all are), but he was one of us just the same. I would not falsely call him my “friend,” as I did not know him well enough to take that title. Nevertheless, I proudly call him my brother in the struggle to protect the Constitution.
In honor of David, the Legal Satyricon flag shall be lowered to half-mast. Have a good journey, brother.
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It’s unfortunate that a good, but fallen, first amendment defender has left us. I do believe in what he stood for or what you made of him. “He was the Christian Coalition’s nightmare, a guy whose credo was naked bodies are no big deal. And none of the government’s business.” This man may have been brought down buy the system and his emotional attatchment to it, but he etched in his mind the deepest and most complicating etch of this system and he died that way. I don’t think he made a mistake. I may have not personally know him, but in the end shouldn’t we all be emotionally attatched to our governement in a sense. When a adult entertainment is censored or something of your own is censored. How can you not get emotionally envolved? We have to fight tooth and nail, even if it seems like we’re being sensless or too “emotionally envolved”, because if we don’t fight for these rights then it gets easier for someone to wash them away.
—“fill the void, for it will collapse, and then we lose our voice”
David Wasserman was my attorney in the high profile case against me back a few years ago…he and Larry Walters both…David was an exceptional man, leader, and patriot for all americans. I just learned of his suicide this morning from a Las Vegas friend, and must say it’s very heartbreaking. If not for this man and his strong beliefs in the first ammendment, I would most likely have served time for my adult website in Polk County. I owe David ALOT, and will never forget the bold statement he made for me, and with me…we worked as a team and that is exactly how I will remember David. I can’t find funeral arrangements anywhere – If you have them, could you please forward them.
Sincerely
Tammy Robinson
Polk County Florida Vs. Tammy Robinson Case.
H.P. Lovecraft put it more succinctly:
Do not call up that which you cannot put down.
Mr. D, my dad………….not only my hero but for others as well! We all owe David Wasserman by remembering him and the battles he fought to protect us. Thank you to all his friends, family and for those who did not know him for your words. He will be deeply missed my dad and forever remembered.
David Wasserman was a hero? To whom? To the parents or children of the women whose histories of sexual abuse he and his clients preyed on? To the decent people in communities that had to spend their tax dollars fighting decay and increased crime in their midst, when he and his scummy clients set up shop? Unless David Wasserman encouraged his OWN child to get up on a stage and take her clothes off for strangers, he was nothing but a hypocrite. What he passionately defended was predators and pimps. Sorry that anyone was in a dark enough place to take his own life, but seriously, how could that surprise anyone? He traded in the degradation of human beings and the degeneration of the culture.
When I google your email address, I come up with the identity of an individual who claims to “minister” to people trying to leave adult entertainment.
I find such a lack of compassion in you to be quite unbecoming of a professed christian. The fact that such attitudes are prevalent in the religious community is part of why I chose to be an atheist. If you want to throw the hypocrite label around — I bet I can make it stick to you a lot easier than you can make it stick to Mr. Wasserman’s memory.
did Mr.Wasserman ever write a book “100 Ways to Die and other Microstories”? i distinctly remember having a copy with the same name on it, but i’m not sure if it’s the same person.